Susi McConnell's Story

NORTHERN HARVEST: TWENTY MICHIGAN WOMEN IN FOOD AND FARMING

http://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/northern-harvest

SUSI MCCONNELL’S STORY

Growing up in a Lithuanian family and neighborhood in Saginaw, Susi loved baking from early childhood, but also all the plants and flowers and vegetables in her parents’ garden. Influenced by the back-to-nature movement of the 60s she became aware of “organic stuff. . . . I became really aware of food and the health benefits . . . and I was very aware of the mind/body thing.”

After working as a pastry chef at Leland Lodge, at SugarLoaf, at Hattie’s, at Thyme Out and at Martha’s, Susi developed celiac and could no longer work with flour. Still very conscious of health as relates to food, she then worked with Angela Macke at Light of Day and got into biodynamic gardening.

"I follow the calendar, and I harvest and plant according to the calendar. . . . When we built our house I planted . . . currant bushes, strawberries, black and red raspberries, apricot trees, apple trees, pear trees, plum trees. So what I had done to myself was to become a slave to my garden and my orchards.”

“I’m happy that I have led the life I have, with a total awareness of my environment. We are all inner-connected, and I wish everyone could feel that way.”

To read more of Susi’s story and the stories of 19 other amazing women in food and farming, you can order Northern Harvest from Amazon or from your favorite independent bookstore.

Comments

Dos manos in Matamoros

Dos manos Before the trip to Brownsville, Texas, to help prepare and serve food to asylum seekers held in the tent city across the river in Matamoros, Mexico, Marti told us to bring fanny packs or other bags that would leave our hands free. Whether chopping vegetables or serving from the trays of hot food to the 1,000+ men, women, and children of every age, we would need both our hands , dos manos , at all times. How did we come to be there and why were we doing this? Hunger and homelessness exist inside our nation’s borders, both in cities and rural areas. Tightrope, the new book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, describes families shattered by what the authors call “death by despair.” Donating to good causes and volunteering at soup kitchens are not uncommon, and churches and other organizations strive to meet the need on a daily basis. Still, the need that drew a dozen women in their 60s, 70s and 80s to this community just across the Texas border was on a di

Sailing and Bailing

Messing around in boats Seems like this summer that means bailing rather than sailing, three little boats awash with rain water needing emptying over and over, a repetitive domestic chore like folding laundry or emptying the dishwasher. Decades ago I delegated bailing boats to my three kids; decades later to my two resident grandsons. Bribes in those days were easy, homemade cookies warm from the oven or maybe a trip to Moomers for the ice cream President Biden enjoyed on his visit last week. I used to dislike bailing. I also disliked emptying dishwashers. I was happy to fill the dishwasher as a way of cleaning up the kitchen surfaces, but I always got the children or someone else to do the emptying, just as I got children to bail the boats. Oddly, now, I enjoy sitting in the dinghy or in one or the other of the two sunfish and dipping the bucket over and over into the accumulated rain and emptying it into the lake. Much of my life in retirement now consists of ordina

CHAPTER TWO OF THE ADVENTURES OF BRIOCHE

THE ADVENTURES OF BRIOCHE: CHAPTER TWO In this sad and difficult year of deaths and distancing, rescue shelters across the country have emptied and breeders had more demand than they could supply for canine or feline companions to help deal with the unprecedented isolation and losses. Brioche was born in July and yes, I decided last spring to seek out a puppy to accompany me in this year of the quarantine and then, most likely, for the rest of my life. A mere 3 pounds when she joined me in September not quite yet 8 weeks old, Brioche now weighs in at a whopping 8 lbs. and has reached the advanced age of 7 months. Although I was raised in a family with many dogs and always had a dog (and sometimes a litter of puppies) while I was raising my own children, once my nest was empty and work was fulltime and often required lots of travel, I gave up on living with a dog and for many years starting in the late 80s had cats instead. But now after a hiatus of almost 40 years, this pood

Vernalruminations

Search This Blog